The ROI of Internal Communications

My Dad worked on the production line at a school bus factory. He spent 35 years making school buses. And making a difference.

He actually cared about his job, his company and the people he worked with. He cared about the kids who’d be riding those buses. And he cared about his employees, not just their livelihoods but their lives. He did all that because he stood for something. For decency. For common sense. For making things better. And for doing the right thing.

That made quite an impression on me.

Because of him, for over 30 years I’ve worked in internal communication, culture change and employee engagement to help companies understand and unlock the tremendous business value of their workplace cultures.

That’s not just the right thing to do for employees. It’s the best thing to do for the business.

Over my career, I’ve helped more than 100 companies and over 200,000 employees reimagine their approach to internal comms and culture, guiding them to strengthen their workplace so they can be more successful in the marketplace.

My passion is taking corporate cultures to places they can’t go on their own. I uncover company challenges and opportunities and then develop bold, fresh ideas to address those challenges and take advantage of those opportunities. There’s nothing more satisfying than transforming a client’s culture from tired and bored to inspired and on board.

This work is more than just what I do. Thanks to my Dad, it’s who I am.

No one hates writing a bio more than I do. Despite writing millions of words in my 20-year career for and about others, the awkwardness of writing about myself is palpable.

My nature bends toward empathy, and I have a strong desire for alignment and fairness. Early on, I noticed conversations with colleagues often ended with questions about why leaders did not inform us about the business, decisions, and progress.

The lack of communication often—and perhaps unknowingly—created a culture of distress and fear. Seeing people spiral sparked my desire for change. I wanted to shout it from a roof: Leaders, talk to your employees! Listen to their innovative ideas and spectacular stories.

That’s when I found internal communication, and my sense of purpose, in amplifying employee voices and acting a connector between employees and leaders. I started drawing lines between people, ideas, themes, and systems to provide strategic counsel all in hopes of creating positive change—injecting heart and compassion at every opportunity.

As print gave way to online platforms, what started as cracking open freshly printed newsletters shifted to developing news and information platforms as part of the digital employee experience.

I’m grateful that I get to pursue my passion by helping companies see the bigger picture in creating plans and platforms that put people first to inform, involve, and inspire employees.

Matt Aaronson spent the early part of his career launching and scaling new platform products for companies in the digital advertising technology space, working with hundreds of brands and agencies, both consumer and B2B, to get better outcomes from their media budgets. As a product marketer, his experience has firmly impressed on him the paramount importance of internal communications in any change management process. In his role as Sr. Director of Product Marketing at Simpplr, Matt is working to help leaders in internal communications, HR and IT use their most essential communications channels to drive employee engagement, boost productivity, and usher through business transformations.